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Trawler and motor yacht owners love the sound of our diesels; like sweet music to our ears. The diesel engines are the heart of any vessel.

But problems can take place with diesel fuel stored in your trawler's fuel tanks, that will affect those diesel engines?

It is important to know what diesel fuel is to start with. Diesel fuel is refined from crude oil. In petroleum refineries, petroleum is heated, and different hydrocarbon molecules are extracted to create the fuel. Diesel is much thicker than petrol and vaporizes much more slowly. It's often referred to as "fuel oil" because of its consistency. Oftentimes forgotten, diesel is an organic matter.

"Give a diesel engine clean fuel and it will run forever and a day." This old saying is less of an exaggeration than you might think. Maintenance statistics show that ninety percent of trawler diesel engine problems result from fouled fuel. The promise of doing away with 9 out of 10 potential failures should put fuel-system maintenance at the top of your list.

The most common signs of fuel contamination in a boat are blocked filters, and reduced engine performance. However, the absence of these conditions does not necessarily suggest that your diesel fuel is not contaminated. In fact, it is probable that every trawler's fuel is somewhat contaminated. Diesel Fuel pick-up tubes, where the diesel engine draws fuel from the tank, typically sit about 3/4 of an inch off the bottom of your fuel tank floor. This placement is designed to protect the engine from contamination that has fallen to the bottom of the fuel tank. Therefore, you may never realize that you have a diesel fuel contamination problem until the fuel is disturbed in some way - such as when you are in rough seas in your trawler.

Water can get into trawler fuel tanks in several ways - by condensation of humid outside air, during transport from refineries to distributors, by leakage from faulty fill pipes or vents and by sloppy handling. Water can cause injector nozzle and pump corrosion, microorganism development and fuel filter blockage with organic matter resulting from the corrosion or microbial growth. Your trawler's fuel/water seperators should be checked frequently for water and drained as necessary. In freezing northern winters, ice formation in fuels containing water creates severe fuel line and filter plugging problems. Routinely getting rid of the water is the most effective way of preventing this problem; however, small quantities of alcohol may be used on an emergency basis to prevent fuel line and filter freeze-ups.

Frequent diesel fuel filter exchanges and the expensive fuel system maintenance and time consuming task of cleaning diesel fuel tanks have become acceptable periodic maintenance instead of looking for a warning signal for diesel engine failure. Diesel fuel filter elements should last several hundred hours or more and injectors some 15,000 hours. However, since diesel fuel is inherently unstable, solids begin to take shape and the gathering storage tank sludge will finally clog your diesel fuel filters, possibly ruin your injectors and cause diesel engines to smoke.

Diesel Fuel stored in trawler tanks for extended periods (6 months and more) requires special care. This diesel suffers from multiple problems that influence its quality. The presence of free water provides the platform for microbiological development that result in the formation of slime and acids causing corrosion of metal surfaces such as storage tanks, pumps, injectors, etc. Left unattended this water layer will trap sludge and become the breeding ground for microbes, fungus, yeast and more. This poisonous mix creates acids that compromise the integrity of your tank, lines, pumps, fittings and worse, diesel machinery.

Another crucial agent leading to diesel fuel deterioration, is mechanical stress created by heat and pressure of pumps. Since most diesel engines return considerable amounts of fuel back to the tank, it is simple to see that the engine itself adds to fuel deterioration.

Bugs in the form oil and gas investment of bacterium and fungus are present in all diesel fuels. Extended periods of fuel storage can create ideal opportunities for germs to grow in fuel tanks. The first suggestion of microbic contamination is mucous-like accumulations on fuel-filters. Microbes can only be removed from the fuel system by polishing or by forbidding their occurrences by use of a diesel fuel biocide such as BioBor. I highly recommend it.

Should you use diesel fuel additives? There are many of additives on the market nowadays that are designed to improve the performance and efficiency of diesel fuel. I opt to use Marvel Mystery Oil. Even So, if you use the proper additives, you can achieve peak performance from your diesel fuel every time.

Trawlers typically have primary fuel filters and a set of secondary filters installed; Racor is a good example of primary filters. Every time the diesel engine is operated, the diesel is polished by filtering and returning fuel back to the tanks. A separate polishing system can also be set up that polishes the fuel independently of the engine operating.

By: Marinetrader

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Mike Dickens, the author, is a live aboard boat owner and owner/Broker of Paradise Yachts in Florida USA.

Paradise Yachts offers used quality yachts to customers worldwide.

Visit the Paradise Yachts website to view our selection of Used Trawlers, Used Motor Yachts, and Used Sailboats for Sale

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National and international sales. We ship Used Trawlers, Motor Yachts and Cruisers worldwide. Located in Florida, USA. 904/556-9431

We're always advocates for checking out big purchases in person, because there's nothing worse than ordering a sofa online only to find it's stiff as a board on arrival. However, shopping the interwebs for home decor is an easy alternative to hitting up crowded stores. And with so many amazing sources for stylish and affordable goods at your fingertips, it's almost scary how fast you could decorate your entire home.

Not sure where to start? We've put together a BIG list of the best websites for furniture and home goods. For starters...

1. Ballard Designs: Although this line has a traditional feel, there's something for everyone. And you can choose between hundreds of fab fabrics for upholstered pieces.

2. Jonathan Adler: This cheeky potter has expanded to colorful furniture, lighting, accessories and even fashion -- and it's all available online.

3. One Kings Lane: The king of of decor flash sale sites, this one specializes in amazing vintage finds, too.

4. Fab: This site focuses on up-and-coming brands.

5. Anthropologie: The fashion retailer also has quirky kitchen gadgets, bedding, accessories and furniture -- but prices can be steep.

6. My Habit: Created by Amazon, this flash sale site has great deals.

7. Gilt Home: Get deals from hot designers and items curated from some of the best.

8. 1st Dibs: A designer's secret source for vintage and antiques for the home.

If you've ever wanted or even thought about getting into the shredding industry, the most important thing for you to consider is the truck that you're going to buy because that's the lifeblood of your business.

With the implementation of HIPAA laws and identity theft being on the rise, the shredding industry is an industry which has tremendous growth potential and is a great opportunity for somebody looking to enter the secure document destruction business. Yet, just like any other type of small business, there are a lot of pros and cons to consider, equipment, process, and everything else...

The industry really does rely on equipment; But it also relies heavily on the sales and marketing effort by the startup venture or established venture.

There are two key success factors for shredding companies:

One: You're able to sell your services and get the business established.

Two: Then the equipment really becomes a critical element to success of the business.

Talking about prospecting and marketing for success, people think sometimes that all they have to be is technically savvy in order to be successful in business.

However, if you're not good at getting in front of clients and closing business, you're going to die on the vine. But let's assume that you're good at that. How are you going to be able to deliver on the promises that you make as a shredding company?

So how do Mobile Shredding Trucks fit into the picture?

Well, the shredding industry is a big equipment industry. Your shredding equipment is a tool that - and especially for a small business owner - it is a tool your business is relying on. These are your tools you're going to use every day and if those tools aren't functioning at their top performance day in and day out, your business is going to slowly die.

If you think about it, there are two ways to run a shredding operation. You can get a U-Haul truck and go to an establishment and load up boxes or bins and then bring them back to your facility; or you can literally have your mobile operation center where you show up. You shred everything and you're moving on to your next client. In terms of making it happen right then, right away: Being more efficient in your business operations, you're able to utilize that as a force multiplier.

And that's ultimately why the industry is turning more and more to mobile shredding.

There are viable arguments on both sides of that debate when referring to the difference between offsite shredding and onsite shredding.

The reality is that if you would ask a lay person:

Is it better for me to haul my documents away in the back of a U-haul truck, whole and intact with information on it, and risk a highway disaster where documents are floating all over the place. Or is it better to securely destroy the documents in a fashion that allows them to still be recycled and know that information is now in the chain of custody of a bonded and insured company.

Many customers are now opting for the latter and mobile shredding allows you to do that.

It seems everybody is just itching for a lawsuit and when it comes to safeguarding the security of your client files, you have to think of the risk and liability there. If your client, as a shredding company, is a car dealership for example: Even now with the economy, there are car dealerships selling 200, 300, 400 cars a month which means that upwards of a thousand to two thousand people a month are filling out credit applications and they have to shred and dispose of that client information.

Can you imagine?

You have to and if that U-haul truck gets in a car accident and all of a sudden they're all over the freeway. Who has the liability for that? Is it the shredding company? Is the dealership? Are you going to cost your shredding business the loss of an account and a lawsuit?

Well, everybody loses in that situation. This is why mobile shredding truck manufacturers remain part of this very professional and still growing industry. Ultimately, the reason the industry continues to grow is that when a security breach on information occurs, everybody loses.

The industry recently ran some surveys and it's very clear that the high risk companies (Car Dealerships, Banks and Financial Institutions, Medical Offices & Facilities) are compliant or at least, better be compliant. But where the industry is going to continue to grow is in the small office, home office market, and in retail.

Car dealerships are very cognizant of the requirement to meet the privacy standards but a lot of small businesses still think their best secure document protocol is double bagging the garbage before they put it in the dumpster and they're going to get caught.

This is why shredding companies need good, reliable, easy to operate equipment that doesn't require a set of wrenches everyday to keep it running.

What do you look for when you want to purchase a shredding truck?

The nature of a mobile shredding truck involves long periods of time sitting still while running at high idle.

Shredding hundreds of pounds of paper per hour puts an immense amount of pressure on the internal components of a mobile shredding truck.

As a six year veteran of the US Navy working maintenance on helicopters, too much maintenance can be just as bad as too little maintenance. One thing that is certain, not performing any maintenance is always a bad thing. Durability and Simplicity is the key to making sure you get the most from your equipment.

Quality of parts:

The strength and durability of each and every part of the truck, from the shredding blades, to the hydraulic hoses, to the strength of the box body walls matters. These trucks do take a beating and having high quality, high durability parts that far exceed day-to-day operating thresholds will mean you will have a truck that will serve you reliably for many years.

Simplicity of engineering:

You will get the most bang for your buck with a purely hydraulic system. If you're going to have hydraulics on your shredding truck, you might as well have it robust enough to run all the moving parts Ã?Â¢Ã¢âEUR?Â¬Ã¢â,¬Å" from loading, to shredding, to unload. Besides hydraulics, keep away from excessive computer components. There's a lot going on in a shredding truck. Keep the electrical to solid state components as much as possible. That means wires, fuses, switches, and relays. The more you can procure parts locally without having to call the manufacturer the more likely you'll be back on the road shredding in no time when something breaks down.

Amount of routine maintenance required:

Every truck out there is going to require some degree of routine maintenance. As a small business owner, where it's just you, or whether you are running a business with multiple trucks, the least amount of routine maintenance the better. The more complex and more time consuming the routine maintenance the more likely it won't get done. That means costly maintenance down time at some point in the future. And if you are a one man show, simple routine maintenance translates into you being able to do some of this work yourself - saving on some serious dollars out of your pocket.

Ease and cost of repairs:

There is not a piece of machinery on the planet that will not break down from time to time. So when your shredding truck breaks down, the question is how much is it going to cost and how long is it going to take to fix? Having a shredding truck that can be worked on by a good local shop or that can be repaired by a mobile repairman to get you get back on the road will be the difference between having just a bad morning and having a bad week.

Why buy a new shredding truck over a used truck?

It's extremely hard to argue that brand new equipment is an absolute necessity when first starting out. As a brand new venture, when cash is extremely hard to come by, purchasing a quality, well kept, used shredding truck can make that first year much easier. If going the used route, make sure you look at the same qualities you would look at when purchasing a new truck. Also, make sure when buying a used shredding truck that you can verify the maintenance history of the truck ensuring it has been well maintained.

At some point in time it's going to make sense to purchase a new shredding truck. The reliability of a new truck where you know from the start the maintenance history will be vital in ensuring you will be able to consistently provide quality service to your customers.

One thing to keep in mind is that used shredding trucks do hold their value quite well. That being said, the sooner you start making those large payments on a new truck, the sooner you'll be able to sell that truck for a profit in order to purchase more dumpster rental prices equipment. Or, rather, if you maintain your truck properly, once that new truck has been paid off, you will experience a very nice increase in your cash flow.

How to acquire a shredding truck?

Let's say I'm in California and I want to start a shredding business: It's not like there's a dealer base for shredding trucks.

No, shredding trucks are not sold through dealers. None of the equipment suppliers in the industry sell through dealers. It is a direct to customer industry and with the blessing of the internet, people are able to Google this information, find manufacturers, start making some assessments on what type of equipment suits them, and make their choice.

Keep in mind that because you can't walk up onto a dealer's lot and purchase a shredding truck, there is typically at least a few weeks lead time before a new shredding truck shows up ready for service.

Computer technology has transformed workplaces across the globe over the past two decades. Then came the Internet and, as it rapidly moved beyond a novelty to become a necessity, it too has dramatically changed how businesses run operations and process transactions. While technology is clearly designed to increase efficiency, cost effectiveness, productivity and, ultimately, profitability, there are some drawbacks. One problem reportedly cropping up in recent years is a phenomenon called cyberloafing.

What is Cyberloafing?

Cyberloafing is a term that describes worker behavior on the Internet during work hours. It is a relatively new term. The cyberloafer is a person who spends his or her day on the Internet engaging in non-work related activities. According to Techopedia, the term originates from the word "goldbricking" which essentially means applying a gold coating to a brick of valueless metal, giving it the impression of worth. [1]

Credit: Andy_Bay via Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

What are the Top Cyberloafing Activities?

According to U.S. News, in 2013 a study published by Kansas State University found a large percentage of employee time spend online engaging in non-work activities during work hours. The study said between 60 and 80 percent of people cyberloaf. [2]

So what are they doing? Cyberloafers spend their days focused on surfing different websites, a few examples are:

Engaging in online shopping

Conducting online banking

Posting on social media

Playing Web-based games

Watching various types of videos on YouTube or other websites

Streaming live sports events, such as March Madness

Searching for new jobs

Reading and writing emails

The U.S. News also reported email is a "gateway distraction" to other types of cyberloafing since many people leave their personal email accounts open in a browser window as they go about their work day. Consider all the messages and notifications that pop up throughout the day from family and friends, social media website notifiers, and coupons for online sales--then there are instant messaging applications to think about, being most popular email programs come with an IM option these days. This could create issues with effective time management.

The Problems with Cyberloafing

Cyberloafing activities have led to lost productivity and, as a result, businesses are losing money paying employees for time not spent performing work tasks. With employee attention being shifted to non-work related activities online, the overall workflow slows down and important deadlines or benchmarks may even be missed. Thousands of dollars are reportedly lost each year per employee. Some reports suggest, collectively, this costs national businesses tens of billions of dollars annually. 6 A March 2016 report gives a more specific number - for U.S. businesses, stating it could be as much as $85 billion. [7]

Credit: SanGatiche/Flickr Creative Commons-Attribution

In addition, the U.S. News report indicated, aside from the obvious distractions occurring when employees shift to non-work related tasks, employees end up taking time to recover and refocus after engaging in cyberloafing. For instance, a 2012 infographic published by Learnstuff.com noted it takes e voting system project a person over 20 minutes to "regroup" after spending time on social media. [3] This leads to further losses.

Due to the increased problems associated employee Internet use, including cyberloafing, many employers have decided to monitor their employees, which has led to different types of organizational problems. Solutions businesses have pursued include:

Restricting access to certain websites, such as Amazon, Facebook and other popular websites

Monitoring Internet use, including websites visited and emails

Amount of time spent online

Instilling these types of measures can have negative drawbacks, not to mention employees are entitled to breaks and lunch hours, creating a conflict with how they can spend their free time with an expectation of reasonable privacy. (Creating work Internet policies can be a delicate balance for employers, cyberloafing issues aside, they do have network security to consider as well). Additionally, these types of solutions also do not address the fact some workers may simply turn to their personal smartphones to cyberloaf if they can't use an employer's computer. Making all the technology policy changes in the world is not going to change some people's behavior.

If the issue of cyberloafing is not present in a workplace and productivity and performance is at desired levels, chances are an employer will allow levels of autonomy when it comes to using the Internet during work hours. In this respect, it does boil down to worker behavior.

Update January 2016: Further examination of this issue suggests the aforementioned cyberloafing activities can potentially generate higher levels of productivity. In August 2014, early findings of a study conducted by the University of Cincinnati suggest taking work breaks using the Internet "can refresh workers and boost productivity." [4] Worker burnout is something employers also want to avoid.

Credit: Geralt via Pixabay CC0 Public Domain

Another study, published in January 2016, found that how managers approached cyberloafing could have an impact. First they let the participants have open access to the Internet as they were working. Some worked hard, others cyberloafed and some switched back and forth. About 14 percent of the workers' time was found to be spent cyberloafing.

Next, they shut down the Internet, but didn't find an increase in productivity. So they tried another approach, they allowed the group to vote whether or not the Internet should be turned off. Ninety percent of the time, the participants voted to cut off access to the Internet. Cyberloafers increased productivity by 38 percent.

"In group voting, you strategically give your workers control over something," Matthew McCarter, associate professor of management at The University of Texas at San e voting ppt Antonio (UTSA), said in a press release about the study. "By giving them a voice to stop an unproductive behavior, not only did a strong majority agree to stop cyberloafing, but those who had been cyberloafing (and even who voted against turning off the Internet) redeemed themselves by contributing to the team and working just as hard as the others." [5]

As with most anything else in life, this issue is likely going to be about finding the right balance between work and play. Cyberloafing is an area of study that is probably going to become more prominent in the future as society becomes more and more "connected" in various aspects of life.